This invention relates generally to the manufacture and assembly of covered carts for transporting products of varying description.
Presently, castered carts are known for transporting diverse products such as stacked cases of beverage containers or cartons, for example, from manufacturing or distribution centers to trucks which move them to other facilities such as retailing facilities. Such carts normally have skeletal front and rear end frames extending upwardly from a base platform but are otherwise open to the elements. In the past, closures or tarps of canvas or like material, have been used to enclose the load and protect it from the elements. The tarp was however not, to our knowledge, integrated with the cart end walls in the manner to be described to function as top and side walls in a manner to efficiently mitigate load shifting.
A transport delivery system assembly according to the present invention employs a flexible tarp cover, draped in inversely U-shaped configuration, to cover the load. The flexible and pliant cover integrates with the cart front and rear end rail structures, which include side rails and have a plurality of vertically spaced cross braces, in a manner so that the tarp cover effectively provides the top and side walls of the cart. Strap mounted coupler parts projecting at spaced intervals from the front and rear edges of the tarp disengageably couple with mating coupler parts provided on straps which are looped around the end rail structures and bear upon the cross braces to support the weight of the tarp.